About the SharePoint test data load tool

The SharePoint test data load tool (WSSDW.exe) is a performance testing tool that populates data for testing deployments of Office SharePoint Server 2007. The SharePoint test data load tool is available as a command-line executable program that accepts an XML configuration file that specifies the objects to be populated. The SharePoint test data load application calls a Microsoft .NET assembly (WSSDWLib.dll). WSSDWLib.dll can also be called from other applications.

When you run the SharePoint test data load tool, the tool extracts information about how to populate the server from an XML configuration file. This file must be specified in the command as shown in the following examples.

Populate a server To populate a server with data, run the following command where myfile.xml is the name of your configuration file, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe myfile.xml

Delete SharePoint test data To delete data created by the SharePoint test data load tool, run the same command that you used to load test data, but add a –d command-line switch before the name of your configuration file, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe –d myfile.xml

Specify a URL If you are running the SharePoint test data load tool on a server that has multiple virtual servers, specify the absolute URL to the site as a second argument, where myserver is the name of the specified server, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe myfile.xml http://myserver

Specify a path to plug-in assemblies If your plug-in assemblies are not located in the same directory as the SharePoint test data load tool, load the assemblies by specifying a path to them, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe myfile.xml –p <path to directory>

View supported tags To view a list of tags that are supported by the SharePoint test data load tool, run the SharePoint test data load tool command and add the –h command-line switch, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe –h

Improve SharePoint test data load tool performance To improve performance while loading assemblies, the SharePoint test data load tool maintains a list of known plug-in assemblies. When you run the SharePoint test data load tool, the tool looks for and loads these known plug-in assemblies. If your plug-in assembly is not on the list, you can direct the SharePoint test data load tool to load your assembly by using one of the following procedures.

Run the following command to direct the SharePoint test data load tool to ignore the list of known plug-in assemblies and load all available assemblies, where myfile.xml is the name of your configuration file, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe myfile.xml –loadall

Include the following file in the same directory from which you are running the SharePoint test data load tool. Populate this file with a list of all the new plug-in assemblies you want to load, separated by newline characters, as shown in the following example:

dwlib_knowndllstoload.txt

Constructing a SharePoint test data load configuration file

Before you can use the SharePoint test data load tool, you must construct an XML configuration file. The SharePoint test data load tool will use this file to create objects on the SharePoint server that you are testing. The configuration file should be placed in the same folder as the SharePoint test data load tool. The basic format is shown in the following example.

A list of the objects that are supported by the SharePoint test data load tool — along with known parameters, usage, and legal placement within the XML structure — is provided in the SharePoint Test Data Load Tool Software Development Kit (SDK) (WSSDW.chm).

Deleting SharePoint test data

The SharePoint test data load tool supports deletion of content by using the same XML configuration file that was used to create the content. To perform this deletion, run the SharePoint test data load tool command and add the –d command-line switch to the command, as shown in the following example:

wssdw.exe –d myfile.xml

The SharePoint test data load tool deletes XML objects recursively, deleting the XML children before it deletes the XML parent. If you want to override this behavior for a given XML node, add the following attribute to the node in the configuration file:

quickdelete="true"

Adding this attribute deletes the entire node without deleting the child nodes independently.

Note:

Using the quickdelete attribute speeds up the deletion process, but it might not remove all data from the content database.

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